Molnupiravir, a treatment for Covid-19, would only reduce the risk of developing a severe form of the disease by 30%. A result down from previous clinical trials which estimated this percentage at 50%.
- Oral anti-covid treatment should be marketed in France from December.
- This protects patients against serious forms of Covid-19 up to 30% according to the latest clinical trials.
This is bad news in the face of the resumption of the epidemic: the drug against Covid-19 manufactured by Merk would not be as effective as expected, according to a press release published by the laboratory itself this Friday, November 26. Only 30% less risk of developing a severe form when taking molnupiravir, Merk’s treatment marketed under the name Lagevrio. And yet, to fight against the fifth wave, thehe Minister of Health Olivier Véran had bet on this antiviral: 50,000 pills should be delivered to France by the end of December.
30% less risk of developing a severe form
Previous clinical trials estimated that molnupiravir could reduce severe forms of the disease by 50%… But the latest laboratory findings reduce this percentage to only 30%. Indeed, of the 709 patients who received the treatment during the clinical trial, 48 were hospitalized or died after being infected. That is a percentage of 6.8%. In the group that received a placebo, this ratio was 78 for 699 patients, or 9.7%. When a patient takes this medicine, the risk is therefore only reduced by 30%. “It’s better than nothing, but it’s disappointingreacted Mahmoud Zureik, professor of epidemiology and public health at the University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines in the newspaper The Parisian. And it cannot be excluded that in real life this product is even less effective”.
Health authorities are studying the application for placing on the market
Molnupiravir has been approved for use in the UK. As for thethe United States Medicines Agency (The Food and Drug Administration – FDA) andEuropean Medicines Agency (EMA), they are currently and respectively examining the emergency marketing authorization requests made by the Merck laboratory. The EMA should make a final decision within a few weeks.
A treatment that remains interesting to limit the serious forms of the disease
“That (the results of the last clinical trial) changes absolutely nothing, the evaluations are in progress and we will transmit data to the ANSM (The National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products) and the HAS (Haute Autorité de Santé), said Clarisse Lhoste, president of MSD France, the French subsidiary of the Merck laboratory, to HuffPost. In view of the epidemic situation, the reduction (of risk) remains extremely attractive, enough not to change anything in our market access plans”. Indeed, according to the laboratory, molnupiravir remains interesting for limiting severe forms of Covid-19, especially in adults at risk.
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